Why Is it Only Okay for Us to Be Women's Sports Fans Now?

Growing up, I was a big Yankees fan. I could recite the starting lineup backwards and forwards. I could rattle off Paul O'Neill's RBIs and OBP. I was at Yankee Stadium when David Wells pitched a perfect game (and have the Beanie Baby to prove it) and I cried when Carl Everett ruined Mike Mussina's own nearly flawless outing. I've owned shirts with David Cone, Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez, Mariano Rivera, Mike Teixeira, and Derek Jeter's names on them. I've never owned a sports jersey with a woman's name on it, besides my own.

I played three sports in high school—probably with more enthusiasm than actual skill if you asked my coaches—but I never really followed any female athletes. I've tuned in to watch Venus and Serena Williams compete at Wimbledon. I rooted for Tara Lipinski in the 1998 Olympics. I was aware of the Fab Five, but couldn't name them (sorry, blasphemy, I know!). And when Brandi Chastain ripped off her shirt after scoring the wining penalty goal in the 1999 Women's World Cup, I pinned the iconic image of her to my bulletin board.

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But Chastain's poster was eventually edged out by a very lovely image of a sweaty David Beckham in his English football kit on my wall, and women's soccer once again left my radar. Why? Despite going to an all-girls school for 13 years, having one of my closet friends recruited to play soccer at a top tier college, and having Venus, Serena, Mia Hamm, Lindsey Vonn, and Maria Sharapova presented to me as worthy role models, I wasn't really into women's sports. Because I wasn't really exposed to them. Because we don't celebrate female athletes the same way we celebrate their male counterparts.

Perhaps now is finally the time.

"New York City has a strong history of honoring sports achievements in the Canyon of Heroes, but has never held a parade to honor a women's team," Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer wrote to Mayor de Blasio on Monday. "Our newest soccer champions represent an opportunity for New York to recognize that heroes and role models come in all genders, and I hope you will work with me to make this parade a reality."

There have been countless ticker tape parades held to honor men—how many people do you know who have skipped work or school to watch the Giants, Yankees, Rangers, or even John Glenn parade up Broadway? The women who've gotten the ticker tape treatment? Most recently, Olympic figure skater Carol Heiss Jenkins in 1960, Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1959, and Queen Elizabeth II and Althea Gibson, winner of the Wimbledon women's singles championship, in 1957.

Ticker Tape Parade for Queen Elizabeth II in 1957.

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This weekend, more people in the United States watched the Women's World Cup Final than have ever watched a single soccer match—men's or women's. I watched; my friends/entire Instagram feed watched; Beyoncé watched; 26.7 million people watched. Because it was "cool" to witness a squad of 23 women kill it on the soccer pitch for 90-odd minutes. Because, as one male friend said to me this weekend, "It's more exciting to watch women's soccer than men's," explaining that despite the slower pace, there's more build up for goals and the game stops less often thanks to fewer dramatic dives. And because these women are incredibly talented athletes. More people watched the U.S. defeat Japan than watched the NBA Finals, the 2015 NHL Finals, or the final game of the 2014 World Series. That in itself is something to celebrate.

There are, of course, miles—and years—to go before women's sports teams can compete with men's teams when it comes to building a fan base. As David Berri at Time explains, what men's teams have that the women's don't has nothing to do with skill or talent—it's all about history. "The WNBA and professional women's fastpitch has only been around for about 20 years. Professional women's soccer has an even shorter history. To expect a league that is this young to have the fan following we see in more mature sports leagues is unrealistic. The NBA, which has existed since 1949, did not average 7,500 fans per game—or what the WNBA averages today—until the 1969-1970 season," he writes. "The history of men's sports leagues illustrate that even if women's sports leagues were fully supported by the media, and sexism did not exist, it would still take time for these leagues to grow."

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But it's not just about time. "Title IX has had a tremendous impact, but there's still so much work to be done," Angela Hucles, president of the Women's Sports Foundation and a two-time Olympic gold-winning member of the US Women's National Team, told us over the phone this afternoon. "We're not on equal playing ground, and I think the best example is that our women's team wins the World Cup and the men's team doesn't get nearly as far, and yet the monetary compensation and reward is far less," she said. A pay gap that is, in fact, tremendous: This year the World Champion Women's team will be paid 40 (!) times less than the men's World Cup team was paid last year. "These types of things take time, that's why we're still seeing it. We need society to catch up to recognize women are putting out the same sweat, blood, and tears as men's pro athletes. The woman's game is [a] head [game]—and it's a defensive game right now."

There are still the aptly labeled "dopes" out there who think women's sports aren't worth watching, like Sports Illustrated's Andy Benoit who recently shared his sexist feelings on the subject on Twitter. Thankfully, countless social media users, 26.7 million Americans, and 23 freaking phenomenal female athletes proved him wrong. And we should be watching—because women's sports games are exciting; and because, as Hucles notes, over 90 percent of female executives have a sports background, according to a recent study by Ernst & Young;and because girls should be wearing jerseys with "Lloyd," "Holiday," and "Solo" emblazoned on the back.

Sally HolmesDigital DirectorSally is the Digital Director of MarieClaire.com where she oversees coverage of all the things the Marie Claire reader wants to know about (beauty!

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